Bouchard picked his spot on a screened Kevin Lankinen with 3:34 left in the first period, then completed a pass from Connor McDavid in the slot a period later to tie it up for the Oilers a second time, making it 2-2 at the end of two periods.
After the Canucks scored three times in a 4:05 span early in the third to make it an uphill climb for the Oilers, Bouchard factored in with the secondary helper on Vasily Podkolzin’s first of two goals, only to complete his hat trick 24 seconds later on a quick release that went bar down through a double screen to bring down the hats onto the Rogers Place ice.
Bouchard’s last hat trick came earlier this year on Jan. 24, 2026 against the Washington Capitals, and doing so again in the same calendar year made him the fifth defeneman to achieve the feat alongside his former assistant coach Paul Coffey (2 in 1985), Denis Potvin (2 in 1978), and Bobby Orr (3 in 1974, 2 in 1975 and 1973).
Twice, Bouchard found his way through screens with terrific seeing-eye shots, but all the post-game praise from him went to his teammates for standing in the way.
“One of those nights,” Bouchard said. “Without those guys in front, none of them were going in. Hyms was battling. Podz, he’s always battling in front of those guys. Without them, they wouldn’t have gone in.”